St. Paul voters Tuesday approved a new way of voting for mayor and city council.

A ballot question asked voters whether the city should adopt a method of voting known by several names: instant-runoff voting (IRV), single-transferable voting and ranked-choice voting.

With all 104 precincts reporting, the measure received 17,083 “yes’ votes and 15,486 ‘no’ votes, according to unofficial results. That equates to roughly 52 percent in favor versus roughly 48 percent opposed.

The ballot question was hotly contested, with both the for and against campaigns emanating from the city’s dominant Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

“I think the voters wanted a change,” said Ellen Brown, coordinator of the St. Paul Better Ballot Campaign, which spearheaded support for the issue. “They wanted a chance to have more candidates, and this gives them that.”

Meanwhile the leader of opposition vowed to challenge the election on the basis of campaign literature disseminated by the Better Ballot Campaign.

Minneapolis used the system for the first time Tuesday, and St. Paul would be the second Minnesota city to adopt it. The longest-running IRV system in the United States is in San Francisco, which has used it since 2004.

Under the St. Paul IRV scenario, primaries are eliminated for mayor and city council races. School board races (as well as county, state and federal races) are conducted as normal.

The elections system counts up all the first-choice votes. If one candidate wins a majority, she or he wins, and it’s over. But if no one has a majority, the “instant-runoff” kicks in. The second choice on the last-place candidate’s ballots gets those votes. The process continues until a candidate has more than 50 percent of the total votes cast.

Under the current system, the winner is the candidate with the most votes, regardless of what percentage he or she received.

The earliest St. Paul voters could usethe system is 2011.

Proponents of ranked-choice voting want it to become the statewide system for voting.

So far, statewide proposals have gained little traction in the Legislature, but proponents had hoped successful campaigns in Minneapolis and St. Paul would give it a push.

Regardless, at least one group, the right-leaning Minnesota Voters Alliance, has vowed to file suit, probably this week. The Minnesota Supreme Court upheld Minneapolis’ system as constitutional — in theory. Andy Cilek, Minnesota Voters Alliance executive director, has said he plans to challenge the actual practice of IRV on the grounds that it violates the constitutional principle of one-person, one-vote.

Tuesday’s voter turnout in St. Paul appeared on track to be the lowest in recent history, Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky said. Since 1993, no city election with a contested mayoral race has ever seen turnout below 59,000. Tuesday’s turnout appeared headed for a figure of less than 35,000, below 20 percent.

Local political junkies had been speculating for weeks about what a low turnout would mean for the IRV question’s fate.

There was no consensus. Some thought low turnout would help the yes campaign because it had produced targeted mailers featuring respected leaders like former Mayor George Latimer. Meanwhile, others thought low turnout would help the vote-no campaign because those who turned out would be Democratic-Farmer-Labor loyalists, and the city DFL Party refused to endorse IRV.

Both sides can claim they got their messages out, based on a random sampling of voters in the West Seventh neighborhood.

“I voted for it because I want lesser-known candidates to have a shot,” said Mike Heise.

“It’s too complicated,” said Joyce Kanevsky, who said she voted no.

Both Kanevsky and Heise said they were familiar with the arguments for and against, but other voters said they walked into the polling place and struggled to understand the one-sentence question that occupied 16 lines on the ballot.

“I didn’t know what it was,” Michelle Atlas said. “It was something about how we vote. I said yes. I hope that was the best choice.”

Joe Jents said he wasn’t adamant one way or the other. He voted yes. “I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “Maybe it’ll make a change for the better.”

The head opponent said the battle wasn’t over.

“I think the campaign literature that they did easily counted for 1,000 votes,” said Chuck Repke, who heads the vote-no No Bad Ballots group.

Repke was referring to a series of formal complaints he filed against the Better Ballot Campaign, alleging the group improperly used the likes of President Barack Obama and the St. Paul League of Women Voters on recent pro-IRV mailings. The state Office of Administrative Hearings has scheduled a telephone hearing on the matter today, and Repke said he was confident he’d receive a ruling that would allow him to legally contest the election before a three-judge panel, just as happened in the U.S. Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman.

“I am absolutely confident we can win this case,” he said.

The Better Ballot Campaign has stood by its actions, and Brown said any challenge would be dismissed.

Dave Orrick reports on state government and politics from the Pioneer Press' Capitol Bureau. When the occasion demands, he's been known to cover topics ranging from hunting to golf. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and son.

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